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Music

March 11, 2009

Every once in a while I like to be short-circuited in my day-to-day life by unexpected and extra-ordinary encounters. Whether re-discovering the simple wonders of nature, exploring new emotional landscapes (like Björk would say) or meeting talented earthlings, I know now how these fresh vibrations are indispensable, as they feed my human soul.

Yesterday a colleague who knows I like weird electronic devices and instruments, sent a little link to my mailbox (thanks Pete!). What I found there was indeed full of wonders. Little Boots is an odd, absolutely lovely Artist with a capital "A". The first video I saw (featured above) immediately punched my curiosity so that I simply couldn't resist checking a few side links out. One other "home recording" particularly touched me.

Although I had already seen demos of the Yamaha Tenori-On, this one added a delicious human vibration touch to the transistors, electronic circuits and flashing leds. Amazing... to be able to both compose a song live on such an instrument and sing -being perfectly in tone- while looking so relaxed at the same time. Fabulous, well to my eyes it is... I noticed that folks at Yamaha are referring to Little Boots on their site with a news story (in other words "text"...) pointing that she was listed on BBC radio one famous "Sound of... 2009". Now, wait a minute... they do point out other artists using the Tenori-On in a very boring (well, at least it is to me) way.

My 2 cents... -and I admit that this thought is probably being quite subjective- I believe that a video like Little Boots' is definitely something Yamaha shouldn't miss. They probably saw it, but I think they should do something about it. It is a LOT more insightful and filled with a LOT (many) more emotions than a corporate "look at this new fantastic instrument" kind of message.

June 30, 2008

Here is a little gem I just discovered via threeminds and that illustrates how creativity and talent can transform a challenge into a master piece. This short film is the work of James Houston, a student of the Glasgow School of Art who decided, for his final project, to respond to the online challenge launched by the Radiohead. The band proposed on a dedicated site a contest to remix their latest single "Nude". Here is what James did out of it. Although he was too late to enter his work within the deadline, I think he deserves a big huge online wave of applause from all of us.

"I've just graduated from the Glasgow School of Art's graphic design course. This was my final project.

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In
Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered,
as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs
is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to
seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.

This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4
beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they
qualified for the contest.

Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR
radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people
would approach such a challenging task. I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit. Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I
grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed
them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something
that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.

I missed the contest deadline, so I'm offering it here for you to enjoy.

Check this film James did as he mentioned it to be his "...first ever project working with live action video". Wow! Definitely worth being pointed here as well. Read the comments on Vimeo and find out how he did it!